Technical Group Discussion for Engineering Students

Technical Group Discussion for Engineers:

Case Study:

• In a case study,a problem situation is given typically with a central character involved.The group members have to understand the situation and resolve it.As such,there are no right and wrong answers.However,such GDs are usually not popular in freshers' recruitment.They are more popular in MBA admissions.

Technical Group Discussion:

• An Emerging trend in the selection process is the introduction of GDs with a technical twist.

Possibility 1: The Group is given a straight forward technical topic and asked to discuss it.Here,the evaluators assess the candidates' technical domain knowledge and power of expression.

Possibility 2: The group is given a brief presentation on some new technology,after which a question or related issue is raised and they are asked to discuss the same.Apart from asssessing the candidates' ability to grasp new concepts and apply them.

• Sometimes,the technical GD can include a QA session with the recruiter.

• To work efficiently, a group needs to have within it,a number of different types of characters.In the relatively straightforward categorisation below,the building and maintenance activities are regarded as good,the blocking ones as bad.Make sure that your contribution are always positive.

Building Contributions:

•     Suggests new or related ideas for discussion
•     Proposes different approaches to problems
•     Elaborates and builds on suggestions made by others
•     Questions proposals made by others,to test their credibility
•     reviews progress of discussion,and suggests next step

Maintenance Contributions:

•     Tries to reconcile different points of view
•     Encourages everyone to contribute
•     Relieves tension in the air,for example introducing humour,or by moving on the conversion.
•     Agrees to compromise rather than sticking stubbornly to a point

Blocking Contributions:

•     Talks excessively
•     Talks very little
•     Acts cynically or nonchalantly
•     Boasts
•     Carries on private conversations within the group
•     Shows aggressive behaviour
•     Criticising group members
•     Tries to take over the group without members' approval
•     Stubbornly disagrees and rejects others' views.